By those years – when 18-year-olds could buy beer – the Harrisonburg bar scene was bigger than it is now. Hot spots of the ’70s and ’80s included Martin’s Garage (a former garage) which Touch of the Earth recently vacated; Gatsby’s, The Other Place and Mystic Den on the present jail site; and the Scotland Yard disco and Generation Gap on South Main. Melrose Caverns near North 11 was a party mainstay.

Poking around on the web led me to this video of a band called Skanks playing Mystic Den in 1986. There’s another song from the same performance called White Lies.

I remember when the jail was being built (my family moved to the Valley in ’87) but don’t have a very strong memory of these buildings. Any old timers care to fill in the blanks for us n00bs?

53 Responses to “Before The Jail: Mystic Den”

hey was hopping to see someone on herethat i new but don t think i do if you visited laymans around 1976 would love to talk about those days those were some really good times but so so long ago i remember puff iworked evenings with him by the way is he still around ialso worked with helen diane and edie some of the people i remember coming in was brad johnny dove teddy well as you can tell it was mostly working man place to have abeer or two after work but i meet a lot of really nice people working there and juch want to say hey and hope all are doing really good

The Den was the best. I used to love watching the Waxing Poetics play there and a local JMU band Apartment 6 with Billy Kingsley as lead singer. I think some good reggae bands played there if I recall.

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Friendly City Food Co-Op, Harrisonburg’s consumer-owned grocery, invites the community to come see its new destination for natural, organic and locally-produced products at the store’s grand opening 11 a.m.-5 p.m. July 9 at 150 East Wolfe Street.

HARRISONBURG, VA — Friendly City Food Co-op, slated to open this month in Harrisonburg, Va., has become the newest member of the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), a business services cooperative serving 120 consumer-owned food co-ops nationwide.

May 2: Harrisonburg was honored when the League of American Bicyclists announced the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) designations over the weekend to kick off May as National Bike Month.